Friday Links — April 23, 2010

• A 16-year-old schoolgirl has been banned from classes in Spain after refusing to remove her headscarf at school.

• File this under “Duh”: The Washington Post reports that Afghan women believe European countries’ efforts to ban niqabs and burqas are appalling. European dress code link dump! The Associated Press, Bikya Masr, AFP, Al Jazeera, CNN, ThinkSpain, and The Gazette.

• The New York Times highlights Mashid Mohadjerin’s photographs of Tajik women.

• Malaysia has dropped almost 30 spots in the Global Gender Gap Index in the last three years.

• Apparently, women who don’t “cover up” enough are “promiscuous” and “cause earthquakes.” More here.

• The Guardian profiles Nawal El Saadawi.

• UN human rights chief Navi Pillay called Monday for Gulf states to lift restrictions on women and to improve the position of millions of foreign workers in the region.

• Hundreds of Muslim women took to the streets against the terror menace in Agra, India as part of the three-day National Women Muslim Conference.

• An Emirati woman has been sentenced to death, and may likely be the U.A.E.’s first female execution.

• elan talks about “hijab stuffing.“

• The Daily Times discusses Shazia Mirza’s comedy.

• Raquel Evita Saraswati writes about Nujood Ali and her forthcoming memoir. And NPR looks at child marriage in Yemen in light of Ali’s story.

• Osama Diab writes about why gender segregation is not the solution to sexual harassment in Egypt.

• Muslim Reverie reminds us all that we need to stop telling Muslim women how to dress.

• Saudi Arabia and Iran are the Middle East’s largest consumers of cosmetics.

• Saudi Jeans writes personally about the Gulf’s guardianship laws.

• France24 reports that women in the Algerian city of Hassi Massaoud are being terrorized by a series of attacks and rapes.

• Singapore launches a new magazine for Muslim women. More from Reuters.

• Today’s Zaman interviews Bilgin Defterli, who believes that the Turkish women’s soccer teams play better than the men’s.

• A two-day-old infant girl is murdered by her grandmother. May Allah give her peace and justice.

• A woman in Saudi Arabia was arrested and beaten by the morality police. May Allah give her justice.

• Germany has appointed Aygül Özkan as minister of social affairs. She is the country’s first ever minister of Muslim and Turkish origin.

• Is anyone else suspicious of the use of the term “singing” in this article?

• The National profiles two female Emirati filmmakers who are criticizing societal ills.

• elan profiles spoken word artist Ainee Fatima.

• Morocco launches its first LGBT magazine.

• Now that a 12-year-old girl has won a divorce in Saudi Arabia, officials are seriously considering a minimum age requirement for marriage.

• Turkey’s Saturday Mothers have returned with a vengeance.

• More about Saudi Arabia’s plans to draft a law allowing female lawyers to try family law cases in court.

If there’s news about Muslim women this week that we’ve missed, feel free to post links in the comments!